Camden Council becomes the first organisation in the country to independently publish a pay analysis of its workforce by gender, disability and ethnicity.
The information which goes live on the Council’s website today reveals the pay of staff across the organisation analysing any differences (or pay gaps) at each job level by gender, ethnicity and disability. In March this year Government accepted the addition of a new clause to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill, which will implement a section of the Equality Act 2010 requiring companies with 250 or more employees to publish information about gender pay gaps from April 2016. However in a bold move, Camden are going a step further to also publish data by ethnicity and disability.
Councillor Sarah Hayward said: “We’re going further than anyone else to publish this information because we believe it’s important to hold ourselves to account and ensure equality is at the heart of organisation and throughout our workforce. We want to constantly challenge ourselves to achieve the best possible representation within our workforce at all grades and parts of the organisation”
By providing a higher level of detail, analysis and comparison data than is done as standard in the public or private sector, the Council welcomes an open scrutiny of its data and feedback from staff, trade unions, other employees and members of the public. The Equality and Human Rights Commission recently revealed overall the UK’s gender pay gap stands at 19.1 per cent for all employees, with women in full-time employment earning 9.4 per cent less than men and the gap for women working part-time even wider. Deputy Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Caroline Waters said:
“We welcome this important step by Camden Council to publish a pay analysis of its workforce by gender, disability and ethnicity. Evidence and transparency are a vital first piece in helping us to understand the landscape before we can progress to identify and address any pay gap injustice. “Whilst Government proposals for mandatory reporting for organisations with more than 250 staff would only apply to gender, Camden are to be applauded for proactively taking the initiative one step further.”
Councillor Hayward continues: “Although I’m incredibly proud that the data doesn’t show we have significant pay gaps in our organisation based on your gender, ethnicity or disability, of course there are always areas which need improvement but by making this information public we are also making a public commitment to tackle any issues it shows up.” The Council will update this data and publish every year as part of its commitment to data transparency.
